Tuition up at four-year colleges since legislature deregulation

Kelvin Sharp has closely watched the impact tuition increases of the past five years have had on parents and students and on colleges and universities across the state.

“We’re not going to raise tuition at South Plains for a year,” the South Plains College president said of his school of more than 9,000 students. “We’re ready for some growth. We just don’t know how much.”

Since the State Legislature deregulated college tuition five years ago, tuition at the state’s four-year colleges, such as Texas Tech, The University of Texas and Texas A&M, has exploded. As a result, many students who normally would have gone straight to a four-year college or university, are opting for community colleges for their first two years because the cost of attending those schools is considerably lower than at four-year institutions.

All things considered, Sharp said that at 3 percent last year, South Plains College had normal growth.

But enrollment could increase significantly in the years ahead unless the Legislature puts the brakes on rapidly increasing tuition costs. Some educators and legislators say some community colleges, especially in large urban areas like Dallas and Houston, have grown so rapidly they are asking the Legislature for help.

“The growth of community college has increased more, and we think there might be a relationship between the relative cost of attending a community college and that of attending universities,” Texas Commissioner on Higher Education Raymund Paredes recently told a Senate panel.

Heavy burden for community colleges

Since 1990, Texas’ population has grown from 17 million to about 24 million, a 29 percent increase, and the student population has grown as well, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

But enrollment at community colleges has been nearly twice as large — 56 percent — during the last 18 years, said Steve Johnson, spokesman for the Texas Association of Community Colleges.

The number of students at those schools has grown from 370,000 in 1990 to 578,000 in the fall of 2007. More than half of all college students in the state are enrolled in junior colleges.

Yet during the past five years, state funding for community colleges has declined 8.5 percent and that is without adjusting to inflation, Johnson said.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen but we think this is an issue the Legislature will definitely have to address next year,” he said.

In next year’s Legislative session, several lawmakers said they will seek repeal of House Bill 3015, which made deregulation possible after the 2003 session, when the Legislature faced a $10 billion shortfall.

“Five, ten years ago a family could budget the cost of going to college but they can’t do that anymore,” said Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston. “We need to lock it in (the cost of tuition) we need some predictability. Funding college with loans is a tragedy for the folks who come out owing $50,000 to $100,000. We are not representing our constituents if we don’t fix this problem.”

He added “(Community colleges) are not only growing because of the impact of tuition deregulation in four-year colleges, they are growing because of the growth of the state,” Whitmire stressed.

Figures the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board recently released show that for the past five years tuition at Tech, which recently froze tuition for next year, grew 102 percent.

The average cost of tuition and fees, at Texas flagship universities was $8,060 during the just-concluded academic year, $1,031 higher than the national average, Coordinating Board’s figures show.

At Texas community colleges, tuition increased by an average of 28 percent during the same period and the average cost was $1,639 last year — $1,098, or 40 percent, lower than the average junior college tuition in other states.

“The enrollment for community colleges has increased dramatically and the enrollment at colleges and universities has started to flatten out,” said Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston. “And one of the primary reasons for that is that many parents and students simply cannot afford the rising cost of tuition and fees,” at four-year institutions.

Possible solutions

For Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr, D-Brownsville, whose district includes South Texas College, the newest and fastest growing of the 50 community colleges in Texas, one of the solutions to keep with the growth of the two-year schools is more funding.

“We need to be sure that they are adequately funded,” said Lucio whose district includes two other community colleges. “Enrollment keeps increasing every year and they need help from us because local property taxes are not enough” to pay for the rising costs that come with the growing student population.

At South Plains College, for example, 41.6 percent of its funding comes from parents and students, 37.1 percent from the state and 15.7 percent from local property sources and other local sources, according to the school’s Web site.

Since it opened in 1993, enrollment at South Texas College has grown from 1,000 to 17,000, according to the school’s Web site.

Although community college officials say there is no such thing as a typical school, one thing they all have in common is that over the years their share of state funding has declined, forcing them to rely heavily on tuition and fees as well as local property taxes.